Envilog | Climate-ready info at fingertips of rice researchers

February 7, 2013

The Environmental Logger System or Envilog is a portable device that could take actual readings ontemperature, rainfall, wind speed, wind direction, amount of sunlight, atmospheric pressure, humidity,and water height in rice fields.

It bagged the ‘Most Innovative App or Special Jury Award’ from last year’s hugely successful “BigasHackathon” event organized by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and powered by SMARTTelecommunications in the Philippines.

Envilog will be helpful for rice researchers who want environmental data at their fingertips anytime,anywhere. It’s a researcher’s dream that could soon turn into a reality.

“We worked on making our last year’s Envilog more versatile so that researchers could have the optionto choose only the sensors they wanted such as for temperature, humidity, wind speed, and not others,”said Franklin Binos II, leader of the PhilRobotics crew who made Envilog.

“Plus, I think this upgraded version basically now works pretty much like an automated weatherstation,” he added.

Envilog can send stored data via GSM – a standard way for sharing data on mobile networks- while GPSand SD card options can be used to save or back-up data. It is battery operated, but can also be solar-powered.

“The relationship between IRRI and PhilRobotics is a perfect match that will enable us to introduceaffordable technology into farmer’s fields,” said IRRI Chief Information Officer Marco van den Berg.“PhilRobotics will further develop Envilog and have a prototype nearly ready to go,” he added.

“Several IRRI scientists have shown an interest in Envilog and they may be able to help field test andvalidate it when available. Envilog could make gathering weather data in the field cheaper and easier forrice researchers.”

On 7 February 2013, PhilRobotics will share a presentation with IRRI staff on Envilog.

Other winners from last year’s BiGaS hackathon also included:

• Best Game App: ARARO, a port of IRRI’s own RiceGrow simulation program, which allows would-befarmers to simulate possible events in rice planting, such as heavy rainfall, pest attack, and rice decay.

• Best Research Data Collection App: IsWater App, a mechanism that automatically detects the levelof ground water by installing a sensor underground that reads and interprets water levels via a mobileapplication.

• Best Farmer InfoTechnology App: Binhi, a mobile rice variety picker that helps farmers choose whichsuitable rice variety to plant depending on the kind of field they have and their general location.

The 2nd next big tech push for rice is slated to come this Aug 10-11, 2013 as IRRI gears up forBigas2Hack, the sequel to last year’s BiGaS event for web and mobile app Filipino developers.

For more information about the PhilRobotics talk this coming Feb. 7, please contact: